One eyewitness reported seeing police cars, an ambulance and two crews from Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service.

He said: “It looks like a serious accident. It’s near the bus stop between the Premier Store and the Texaco Garage.

“I went by around 10.30am and it looked like they had been there a while.”

Another driver who went by the area said it appeared two vehicles had been involved in a collision, a red Nissan Micra and a white Ford Transit van.

The driver of one of the vehicles, the Micra, is understood to be a 82-year-old Preston man and may have had his wife with him in the car. The fire service is understood to have used cutting equipment to free them from the car.